Cooking With The Crockpot

[roadstr6]

The last time I had the Crockpot off road in a situation where the suspension was twisted up I discovered that the rear tires had an affinity for sheet metal...specifically the rear quarter panels. In the pic you can see the wedge shaped gap between the flare and the body where the tire basically folded back the rear section of quarter panel. I suppose I was lucky that I didn't cut the tire...especially so because I was really out in the middle of nowhere when it happened. Both sides were equally mashed.

Yesterday I decided to do a tad more fender trimming. As much as it pains my soul to take away more of Mr. T's precious vintage sheetmetal, it had to be done. Sure, I could have lengthened the bump stops but the rig struggles to flex as it is sitting on 4" lift springs. It needs all the help it can get. Here are a few neighborhood ditch flex poser pics taken with the flares removed and the new cuts made:

No more fender bender (which is good). I made some cuts to the inner part of the flares to match the sheetmetal cuts and re-drilled and re-installed them.

One last thing...notice that in the pics that the rig has a front wheel up. I'm disappointed in the lack of droop on the front axle. I'm not sure if my shocks are too short, limiting the droop or if the stiff, highly arched 4 inch springs are the culprit. When I ordered the shocks I thought I had measured correctly, but now I'm second guessing myself. I think I will take the shocks back off and do the flex test again without them to see if it makes a difference.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Looks better without the flares

 

[roadstr6]

Nah. There are so many damn holes drilled in the QP's and the cuts that were made (not mine) are jagged and all over the place. I know Jeep flares don't belong on a 'Cruiser but those QP's look too nasty to not be covered up. The pics don't do justice to the ugliness. It's a shame, really. Maybe one of these days I'll drop this rig down to a 2.5" lift and put the factory steelies and 33x10.50's on there. When (if) I do I will weld on new QP's. That's waaaay down the road.

 

[roadstr6]

So in my quest for more flex I decided to remove the spring clamp bolts (not the U bolts...the ones that supposedly keep the leaves from fanning out and getting out of line. The spring has two ears that stick up an inch or so above the top leaf. I feel confident that even without a bolt spanning across the top, the ears will serve as guides to keep the leaves in line. I then went back out to my trusty neighborhood ditch for some more flexing and measuring....

 

[roadstr6]

I measured the shocks fully stuffed and fullly extended under flex and compared the numbers with the specs from Bilstein. The compressed shocks do not bottom out. There is about an inch of piston exposed at full stuff. At full extension the drivers side eye to eye measures 25". The passenger side measures 24.5". Bilstein says my shocks extend to 25.93". The shocks I am using are these:

It appears that the shocks are okay and are not limiting my suspension. It is difficult to tell if removing the spring clamp bolts made much difference. I think it helped a little but these springs are just too stiff to get any decent flex. Oh, and one more thing, I have checked and double checked the shackle bolts. They are all snug but not cranked down hard. They will rotate in the sleeves and are not binding.

 

[mtweller]

It appears that the shocks are okay and are not limiting my suspension. It is difficult to tell if removing the spring clamp bolts made much difference. I think it helped a little but these springs are just too stiff to get any decent flex. Oh, and one more thing, I have checked and double checked the shackle bolts. They are all snug but not cranked down hard. They will rotate in the sleeves and are not binding.

I looked back at your pictures - the shackles look near vertical. Common problem with "lift springs"... they are too short. I had a set of Pinnacle 4" lift springs on my truck when it was SUA and the only relief ever came when I moved the rear spring hangers inboard. Made the shackle angle closer to 45* and allowed the spring to extend / flex a lot easier.

R

 

[carreta]

You should have bought the 5165, they've more travel

 

[roadstr6]

Thanks for the advice guys! Definitely points to consider.

 

[carreta]

Next week I'm going to install my 5165's with 4in HFS springs and shackles. I'll post pics

 

[roadstr6]

Those 5165's are pricey and way out of my budget. Nice shocks though. It'll be interesting to see how they work for you.

 

[roadstr6]

Just started my Warn 8274 rebuild. Pics to follow....

 

[roadstr6]

I am waiting on a part to be drop shipped from Warn before I can attack the lower case of the 8274. For now a lot of cleaning and painting going on.

I decided to wet sand and polish the top case. The drum end plate was modded using the Flintknapper method. The plate mount was drilled and tapped to accept two 1/4" grease fittings. Hopefully this will help things to move smoothly when free spoiling line off the drum. Currently on the fence about drilling and tapping the case for fill and drain plugs. I guess we'll see..

 

[joyRidaz]

That cleaned up nice! In another thread they were talking about how great the old bellviews clean up via buffing... Nice to see such positive results from yours.

Any before pics?

 

[FJinTegaCay]

I decided to wet sand and polish the top case. The drum end plate was modded using the Flintknapper method. The plate mount was drilled and tapped to accept two 1/4" grease fittings. Hopefully this will help things to move smoothly when free spoiling line off the drum. Currently on the fence about drilling and tapping the case for fill and drain plugs. I guess we'll see..

It looks fantastic so far! Great job!

As I have had to get into my Warn 8247 several times while attempting to find and fix the source of my slow leak, I can see the benefit of being able to drain and refill the winch w/o cracking it open. Scraping off all the RTV and keeping it from falling down into the lower housing is a real pain.

 

[roadstr6]

Well that settles it. I'll attempt to drill and tap for fill and drain plugs. The case appears to be really thin. I doubt if I'll be able to get more than two or three threads in it. The best solution would be to build up sections of aluminum weld puddle and then drill and tap those for more thread contact area but I can't weld aluminum. My stopgap solution is to go small and use two 3/8"-16 x 1/2" set screws for fill and drain plugs. I will simply wrap each set screw with PTFE tape to seal everything up. Fill and drain through such small holes will take a little longer, but my thinking is that by going with a small diameter plug, if I can't get good thread contact and I have to end up have a bung welded, I can always do that and drill and tap for a larger plug. My ultimate solution would be to use an automotive type oil drain plug with a copper gasket for sealing, but I don't want to screw it up....Another consideration is the length of the drain plug. There is not alot of real estate inside the winch case that is clear of moving gears, etc. so I'll have to be careful where I put these things.

 

[roadstr6]

Here's what I did:

 

[roadstr6]

That cleaned up nice! In another thread they were talking about how great the old bellviews clean up via buffing... Nice to see such positive results from yours.

Any before pics?

I don't have any good "before" pics of just the winch. Here's a couple of the winch on the truck when I first got it and as work began on the truck before I pulled off the winch and the hideous bumper.

 

[joyRidaz]

Thanks, I'd say those pics definitely make it clear as to the before/after of your refurb.

Man it looks brand new now! Sounds like it will work great also.

 

[roadstr6]

I'm finally finished with clean-up and paint on this winch. I'm waiting on a part from Warn before I can re-assemble everything. Here's a few teaser pics for now:

 

[roadstr6]

And here's the busted part I'm waiting on the replacement for. It's PN 7732. Notice the broken teeth.

C'mon brown truck! C'mon!